Spirits Cricket

It will be interesting to see what spin combination the Indian think tank goes with in the first One Day International match against England that will be played in Bristol.

Normally, India goes with the duo of Ashwin and Jadeja irrespective of the conditions, but, there’s word around that the uncapped leg spinner Karn Sharma, who has been included in the Indian team for the first time, has made quite a good impression on the team management and he might be playing come tomorrow.

Karn has not been a huge performer in domestic circuit in India, but, in the last two editions of the Indian Premier League, he has bowled really well. He was pretty decent for the India A side on the recent tour of Australia as well.

The thing about Karn is that he is a leg spinner who bowls quite fast and turns the ball too. There have not been that many spinners in the game who have had this potent combination. Anil Kumble was a fast leggie, but, he didn’t use to get that much of spin off the surface. He was more dependent on his variations like flippers and googlies and all.

Karn might not be as versatile as the legendary Kumble, but, he gets fair amount of turn at the speed of around 90 kph which is very handy especially in limited-over cricket where the batsmen look to go after you most of the times.

Also, the English players have been traditionally weak against the leg spinners. Shane Warne has been very successful against them and so has been Stuart McGill, another Aussie. So, it would be worth it to give Karn a go.

Karn has 49 wickets to his name in 25 first class matches.

Movie Score: 4 / five

Ishant Sharma’s bowling spell in the second session of the third day in the ongoing Trent Bridge test match was a treat to watch. The tall, lanky young man bowled some absolute peach in that spell to get India on the driving seat.

Yes, the ball was reversing a bit, but, still, right lengths had to be hit and Ishant did that perfectly. He bowled fraction fuller than he normally does and extracted a lot from the wicket. His deliveries were coming in sharply for the right handed batsmen and a few of them were going straight as well.

The Delhi quickie got Robson out with an in dipper and then he bowled a middle stump delivery to Ballance which didn’t go away after pitching. The Yorkshire left hander was playing for that away going ball and thus, he couldn’t make the connection. The ball wrapped on his pad and the umpire’s finger was up straightaway.

Ishant then got Bell out as well with a beautiful delivery. He bent his back and made that ball rise from a length. Bell wanted to play a cut shot on that, but, after realizing that it was bouncing a bit too much, he tried to take his bat away. The ball, however, somehow kissed a part of the bat and went into Dhoni’s gloves.

In the last session of the day, Ishant looked a bit tired though and that’s understandable. He had done a lot of bowling in the first two sessions.

Ishant would be the key for India on the last day of the match as well. India, in all likelihood, would bat at a quick rate in the second innings and put England back in later tomorrow.

However, the first thing that the Indian bowlers will have to do on the Saturday morning is to separate the Root-Anderson pair which frustrated them a lot in the last hour of the third day.

Video Ranking: five / five

Video clip Ranking: 5 / 5

The left arm spinner Akshar Patel who performed brilliantly for Kings XI Punjab in this year’s Indian Premier League has been rewarded by the Indian selectors as he has been included in the squad for the tour of Bangladesh.

Patel is one of the three specialist spinners in the side. Amit Mishra and Parvez Rasool are the other ones.

Almost all the bowlers including the likes of Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel were taken to the cleaners at some point of time in IPL 7, but, young Patel didn’t give the batsmen opportunity to dominate him in any match.

Patel has a slightly deceptive sort of action. He is a tall man and bowls round arm. Also, rarely does he turn the ball. He likes to push the ball through and his deliveries generally come in for the right handers.

Patel has got a bit of talent with the bat too. He played a couple of very good innings for Kings XI Punjab during the course of IPL. One of those innings, in fact, was the match winning one and he got the man of the match award for that.

However, despite the success that he has achieved in the IPL, it’s important for Patel to put up a couple of good performances against Bangladesh. Otherwise, he would find himself out of contention for the England tour.

There is every possibility that Patel would be included in the playing XI by the stand in Captain Suresh Raina in the first couple of matches in Bangladesh. He will have to make sure that he doesn’t waste the opportunity.

Patel has played 8 first class matches in his career so far in which he has taken 29 wickets at a brilliant average of 24.